Rethinking Diabetes

Most authorities today believe that those with diabetes can have the same dietary freedom enjoyed by the rest of us, leaving the job of controlling their disease to insulin therapy and other blood-sugar-lowering medications. These guiding principles, however, have been accompanied by an explosive rise in diabetes over the last fifty years. In this book, Gary Taubes explores the history underpinning the treatment of diabetes, types 1 and 2, elucidating how decades-old research that is rife with misconceptions has continued to influence the guidance physicians offer—at the expense of their patients’ long-term well-being. The result of Taubes’s work is a reimagining of diabetes care that argues for a recentering of diet over a reliance on insulin. Taubes argues that doctors and medical researchers should question the established wisdom that may have enabled the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity.